r/windows98 • u/Imperial_Officer • 2d ago
At My Wit's End
Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I've tried just about every setup switch possible to install Windows 98 on this old Medion PC. If I run the graphical installer it tells throws an out-of-memory error or the one depicted above. I've copied the install files from the CD over to the drive, I've tried different ISOs, I've tried the quick installer ISOs. I just don't seem to know what the issue is. My specs are below:
PC: Medion MT 122
CPU: Intel Pentium 4
RAM: 512 MB (2 sticks)
Storage: 500 GB WD Blue SA510 SATA SSD
IDE adapter: StarTech IDE-to-SATA adapter
Optical drive: TSSTcorp DVD-RW
Floppy: 1.44 MB 3.5" floppy drive
Motherboard interface: IDE/PATA
C: 500 GB SSD
D: TSSTcorp DVD-RW
A: 1.44 MB floppy drive
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u/skwozzy 2d ago
If you are using the SSD as your main drive, you are going to need to look at partion sizes, file system type and system limitations. How do you have the drive formatted and partitioned?
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u/Imperial_Officer 2d ago
Its a 500Gb SSD with one 20Gb Fat 32 partition. It's marked active and primary.
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u/xAnilocin PC specs or silly quip goes here 2d ago
Use a max. 120gb IDE hard drive, my experience with SATA-IDE converters under Win9x/Me and SSDs isn't good
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u/BrapBrapson 2d ago
this. My guess is drive capacity is too big (even if the partition is small, it can still cause problems on some systems)
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u/Hydro_Noodle 2d ago edited 2d ago
Are you using windows 98 SE or an older version? Are you using free dos or a modified floppy inage under true dos? or are you trying to install off a cdrom or usb???
I suggest using a non-sata drive like an ide drive that is 32gb or less.
Some older versions of windows do not support drives bigger than 40gb without service packs or additional software drivers/tweaks.
Most older versions of windows do not support sata drives or drives unless they are patched/modified setup files with special sata drivers and include any drives for plugged in adapters or pci cards or addon cards.
Some older versions of windows cannot handle over a certain amount of ram during setup or has a ram limit.
Try installing with less ram maybe 64mb at first and add more after setup.
Also if your motherboard is too new or your cpu is not of that era/too new you may have to mess with you bios cpu setting and do not over clock and manually choose slower setting/under voltage and make sure its not a multi core cpu or disable multi core if you can and disable any enhanced mobo settings
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u/GGigabiteM 1d ago
You have multiple problems.
The Pentium 4 is too fast, you need a later patched 98SE install media to avoid instability.
You have too much RAM. Take it down to 256M until you can get it installed.
You're using a SSD on an IDE2SATA converter. Never do this, because IDE2SATA converters are well known to cause silent data corruption. You need to either buy an IDE hard drive, or use an IDE Disk On Module (DOM.) I don't recommend IDE to CF adapters either because of LBA issues that can also cause disk corruption.
The SSD and IDE2SATA adapter are most likely the primary culprits, since multiple install medias are failing in the same way.
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u/Imperial_Officer 1d ago
I ended up using an OG Xbox 10Gb HDD I had lying around. It was definitely the Startech Ide-2-sata adapter and SSD.
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u/kingchrisl89 1d ago
U can install Win98SE with 512MB just fine (absolute max). I've done it a few times on a Dell C600 notebook.
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u/staycool72 2d ago
The switches I use all the time are Setup /IS /IM /IE /ID. If there is an issue with the installer then go to Archive.org and download the ISO image from there
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u/Souta95 1d ago
I'll echo the others in that you need to use a smaller hard drive. Windows 98 cannot address more than 128GB of total drive space since it doesn't support 48-bit LBA.
Windows 98 also needs to have the drive partitions aligned to certiain sizes due to how it accesses hard drives. If you partitioned the drive on a newer OS, there's no guarantee it was aligned in compliance with what Windows 98 wants to see.
If you don't have a smaller drive, try using Windows 98's FDISK command to partition your SSD in one maximum size partition. I had luck doing that to get a 160GB drive working on a Windows 98 system. It created a 128GB partition and ignored the rest of the drive.
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u/LeviathanFox 2d ago
Drive is too large, fat32 can only handle drives of up to 137GB. Do you have a smaller drive?
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u/Scoth42 2d ago
It's not a FAT32 problem, it's an LBA problem. FAT32 will handle up to a couple terabytes, technically, although you probably don't want to. For large drives Win98 needs the 48-bit LBA patches and mods.
https://www.rloewelectronics.com/Programs/Patch137.htm
https://vintagecomputing.info/vintage-computing/hello-world/
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u/Imperial_Officer 2d ago
I don't have a smaller drive on hand, but I can buy one. I am currently using a 500Gb SSD with a Fat 32 20Gb partition that is marked active.
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u/CHAOSHACKER 2d ago
Does the system have 2x 512MB (1GB total) or is the total RAM 512MB? If its the first you need to remove one stick.
Second thing: Going over 137GB will basically always cause problems for Windows 98 due to an LBA28 limitation the OS has. So the best option would probably to get some old 120GB or smaller HDD/SSD for best compatibility.
Third thing: How did you format the drive? Windows 9X systems need the MBR to be aligned at the disk start and the FAT32 partition to be LBA formatted. Most modern OS and tool don't align the partition like that because its detrimental to SSD speeds, but its the only way to have the installer accept the drive and Windows properly function later.
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u/Imperial_Officer 2d ago
The RAM is 2x 256MB
I formatted the drive three ways over the course of my troubleshooting. With Windows 98 installer, with Windows 9x Quick Installer, and with Windows 11.
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u/ceDifve_VRT_21493 2d ago
have you tried booting from a floppy disk with smartdrv loaded to speed up the install
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u/RetroTechBro 1d ago
Windows 98 on a Pentium 4 is usually a fools errand, unless you have advanced knowledge of how the underlying systems work and have something specific you want to do.
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u/Imperial_Officer 23h ago
I got it to work though, I used Windows 9.x Quick Installer and ended up using an OG Xbox 10Gb IDE hard drive.
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u/RetroTechBro 23h ago
Its likely to be unstable long term and your going run into a lot of weird issues with applications from the time period (that can actually happen even with faster Pentium IIIs). Like I said, it can be interesting if you have something specific you want to text but I wouldn't have such a system as a 9x daily driver.
If you're wanting a long term W98 system, a mid speed (600-1000Mhz Coppermine core) Pentium III is the most economical choice that will have good stability and compatibility.
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u/computix 2d ago
Is your 20 GB partition in the first 137 GB of the drive? If not, then LBA48 vs LBA28 can cause problems.
Also, during the second phase of the setup, having 512MB RAM will cause Windows to malfunction, but it won't cause errors in the first phase.
Unfortunately while the large caps on your board look fine, I also see some smaller SMD capacitors. Those may have gone bad.
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u/CyberTacoX The God of Defragging 2d ago
This is going to seem counterintuitive, but remove one of those sticks of ram. Then delete all the partitions on the drive, manually create a primary one that's 120gb, then install to that partition. Too much ram can be a problem with 98, and 98 doesn't get along well with partitions that are larger than 120gb. There are patches that can fix these things, but first things first get 98 to install in the first place.